This study examines Christian death rites in modem Korea in the light of the complex
interplay of Confucian and Christian values. It is based on the fact that Korea, once the
most thoroughly Confucianized state in East Asia, has become one of the most dynamic
Christian countries in the world within the space of a century. The study uncovers the
ways in which Korean Christians, in their death rites, have struggled to balance
'religious piety to God' and 'filial duty to ancestors', which represent core Christian and
Confucian values respectively. They cannot simply choose the one at the expense of the
other as both are integral to their identity.
This study innovatively classifies death rites into three categories: ritual before
death (bible-copying), ritual at death (funerary rites), and ritual after death (ancestral
ritual). After presenting historical and contemporary data of the three death rites, the
study provides two different types of analysis: one is a historical-theological analysis
and the other sociological-anthropological. Drawing upon historical and theological
perspectives, it reveals the underlying principle of complex phenomena surrounding the
three death rites. The thesis then explores these death rites in terms of three sociological
and anthropological theoretical themes, viz. embodiment, exchange, and material
culture. The three death rites are viewed as a 'total social phenomenon', a concept
derived from Marcel Mauss' study and employed here as an overarching interpretive
framework.